Beatles Rooftop Concert Plaque, 3 Savile Row

The Beatles rooftop concert took place on 3 Savile Row in Mayfair, London, then Apple Corps' headquarters. A round blue plaque on the front of the building marks it. A small committee of Beatles enthusiasts had it put up on 5 April 2019, fifty years after the band's last live performance on the roof on 30 January 1969.

Forty-two minutes on the roof

Around 12:30 on 30 January 1969, the four Beatles and Billy Preston on electric piano started playing on the roof of their own company's building. The plan had been for the day before, but the weather forecast pushed it back 24 hours. They got through nine takes of five songs, including three of Get Back, over 42 minutes. It was the last time the band played in public.

Nobody on the pavement could see them. People climbed onto neighbouring roofs or watched from office windows. The police didn't have far to come: West End Central police station is about 150 yards away at the other end of Savile Row, and officers went up and asked for the volume to come down. Accounts don't agree on which officers they were, so we haven't named them. The footage went into the 1970 film Let It Be and the 2021 series The Beatles: Get Back, and the audio came out on its own on 28 January 2022.

Who put the plaque up

The plaque was a private initiative by four people: Beatles guide Richard Porter, David Rosen of the estate agency Pilcher Hershman (whose idea it was, according to Savile Row Bespoke), Mark Baxter of Mono Media Films and David Stark of Songlink. Because the building is listed, Westminster Council took a long time to approve it. The plaque finally went up at 8am on 5 April 2019, with actor Bill Nighy and GQ editor Dylan Jones there.

The wording is short and doesn't mention Apple or the songs. The full text appears in the inscription box on this page.

The house under the roof

Number 3 is much older than the Beatles story suggests. Historic England dates the terraced town house to about 1733, part of the Burlington Estate, and it has been listed Grade II* since 24 February 1958, one grade above the Abbey Road Studios. Inside it still has fielded panelling, carved chimneypieces and decorative plaster ceilings, though the original staircase is gone.

Apple bought it in 1968 for £500,000 and stayed until 1972. The basement studio, where Let It Be was finished, carried on until 1975, and the building was sold in 1976. Shops and offices followed, most recently an Abercrombie Kids store that closed in 2020.

Back to Apple in 2027

In May 2026 Apple Corps announced The Beatles at 3 Savile Row, a ticketed experience due to open in 2027. The plans cover seven floors: material from Apple's archives, rotating exhibitions, a recreated basement studio, a shop and access to the roof itself. Apple's chief executive Tom Greene said the rooftop railings are the same ones that were there in 1969. No opening date or ticket price had been published by September 2026, so for now the plaque on the front is what you can see.

The Beatles' recording home is about 3.6 km north-west at Abbey Road Studios, with the Abbey Road crossing outside.